I guess, you are residing on a windows system? It then could be a problem, that the BB USB driver is not installed properly!

Yes, I am running Windows Vista. I've checked the driver, it 'says' it is up-to-date.

Can you elaborate(not installed properly)? Reason I ask is because this 'just' happened one day?
It's not like it didn't work from day one. It just happened one day out of the blue.
When I plug in my BB USB on occasion it will go through the process of downloading the driver (which is states it downloaded successfully) and other days (like just now) it will just show a USB plug with a green check mark, and the circular active sync icon to the left...

Yes, I am running Windows Vista. I've checked the driver, it 'says' it is up-to-date.

Can you elaborate(not installed properly)? Reason I ask is because this 'just' happened one day?
It's not like it didn't work from day one. It just happened one day out of the blue.
When I plug in my BB USB on occasion it will go through the process of downloading the driver (which is states it downloaded successfully) and other days (like just now) it will just show a USB plug with a green check mark, and the circular active sync icon to the left...

Is it possible that there is a corrupt file somewhere in the line?

Unfortunately, i am not a vista expert, left it out to wait for w7, but the problem seems to be very familiar with all current win versions (e.g. XP showing this prob too - but only sometimes, as you've described it already). When you open the Win explorer, does it identify your BB correctly, or has win assigned a drive to it only? Right click on the BB in the win explorer, properties, drivers - if win only displays common hard disk drivers there, you should try to re-install the RIM USB driver!

Unfortunately, i am not a vista expert, left it out to wait for w7, but the problem seems to be very familiar with all current win versions (e.g. XP showing this prob too - but only sometimes, as you've described it already). When you open the Win explorer, does it identify your BB correctly, or has win assigned a drive to it only? Right click on the BB in the win explorer, properties, drivers - if win only displays common hard disk drivers there, you should try to re-install the RIM USB driver!

Nor am I, but after taking a look at it. It seems that Windows may have just assigned a driver by default...